Antibiotics are emerging pollutants in aquatic ecosystems and there is much recent interest in their removal from water systems. However, the development of efficient sorbents for handling this problem remains a challenge. Herein, we report biomimetic hydrophilic, hollow polydopamine (PDA)-based composites of Fe₃O₄@PDA that were synthesized by a facile oxidation polymerization route. In order to assess the feasibility of Fe₃O₄@PDA hollow spheres as a potential sorbent for antibiotic removal, a series of adsorption experiments were conducted using tetracycline (TC) as the model antibiotic molecule. In contrast to the non-hollow counterpart of PS@Fe₃O₄@PDA, the designed Fe₃O₄@PDA hollow spheres exhibited much enhanced adsorption in removing TC at pH values from 2 to 10. The adsorption of TC onto Fe₃O₄@PDA hollow spheres fit a pseudo-second-order kinetics model, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 151.7 mg g⁻¹ calculated from a Langmuir isotherm model at pH = 8. After adsorption, the Fe₃O₄@PDA hollow spheres could be quickly recovered from the TC solution due to the room-temperature paramagnetic property of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles that were pre-loaded into the interior surface of hollow PDA shells. The combination of excellent adsorption capacity, good reusability and high stability, together with a mild preparation procedure enables these types of hollow composites to have potential applications in specific fields.